


Storm Chaser

by QVince



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Original Character-centric, not telling who though :X, yes you will see canon characters later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2020-10-18 05:03:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20633525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QVince/pseuds/QVince
Summary: Sara Reighs is a magical girl who was contracted late in her teenage years, and has lived quite a bit longer than was expected of her. Now in her early twenties, she has experience and strength that puts her above the average magical girl-- and paints a target on her back.Powerful, commanding, and sometimes brutal in her approach, she has established herself as an authoritative power to try and keep order and peace between her fellow magical girls. She's more than aware of the truth behind Puella Magi, and she needs to keep it a secret... if it spreads, all hell could break loose. And she won't get a redo.





	1. Prologue

SEPTEMBER

A tall figure stands alone, cracking thunder and flashes of lightning breaking the skies above her. Or, whatever facsimile of a sky you could call it. Her muscles are fatigued, her body in so much pain that passing out or dying would be a mercy. Somehow, she’s still standing– somehow, she keeps moving.

How many hours had it been since she entered this labyrinth? It hardly matters now, she thought to herself. Even if it would be easier to simply keel over, she keeps pushing forward, her muscles straining with every lunge forward, every swipe, every single attack she puts forth with her heavy lance.

Everything at this point was muscle memory. Familiars were easy. Most of the time. Usually, there weren’t this many, nor were they this fast, but all of them would fall before her soon enough.

Sure enough, they did– good timing, as her body was only getting heavier by the minute. She wanted this over as soon as possible before she finally fell apart. She had a job to finish.

A promise to keep.

The Witch was finally in sight now, and that’s all that mattered. There was no sense in dragging this out longer than it had to be.

“Sorry.” she hoarsely whispered under her breath, straining all the power left in her arms to bring her spear above her head.

“Go dtreoróidh an stoirm mo sleá.”

An earth-shattering bolt of lightning struck through the tip, coursing through the hilt and her body. This used to make her scream with pain, but it numbed as the years went by. She gritted her teeth and bore the pain, her whole body crackling with electricity. Stray bolts struck the ground around her as she gathered herself, the scars on her back glowing blindingly bright through her clothes.

She knew she wasn’t the one suffering the most right now.

She squatted low to the ground, using all the strength left in her legs to rocket her as high as she could go.

“Ardaigh ar neamh, cara tite.”

Another bolt cracked through the labyrinth, making her tense up from the pain again. Her lance glowed a blinding pale blue, filled to the brim with power.

“Lig do mo sleá tú a threorú.”

She readied her weapon into a position to throw it, the Witch not even moving in response– besides its absentminded twitching. She pushed her arm and shoulder back as far as she could get it to, her arms burning with the strain.

Then, a young voice, marred by static and guttural moans called out to her. No longer human, but still there all the same in her head.

“Sara?”

The woman clenched her teeth, her eyes wide open and brimming with tears.

The fighting got easier as the years went on. This never did.

She let out a scream as she launched the lance as hard as she could, praying that the pain clawing her heart and knotting up her stomach would go with it. Her weapon shrieked through the air alongside her cries, striking the Witch square in the center, the deafening cacophony of its thunderous blow drowning out everything else. The light of the impact was too bright to see anything at this point, leaving the woman to wait until it was done.

She was thankful for that.

Sara woke up, sputtering and coughing weakly in some amalgam of dirt and sand. Looking around, it appeared she was in the middle of some construction project. Everything around her was still illuminated by buzzing fluorescents, so it must’ve still been night-time, she thought.

The pain surged back through her body, making her groan into the ground. Not dissimilar to the feeling to the day after working out too hard, if you also got ran over by a couple of dozen cars in quick succession.

She clenched her hand, resulting in a sharp sting and relinquishing her grip.

“What’s… ah.”

The grief seed that dropped after the Witch’s defeat.

Sara stared at it in silence, rolling it around her fingers.

For most magi, maybe it’d instill a sense of relief, pride even. How many were out there that knew the truth like she did, though? She didn’t feel happy about it. So desperately she wished she could turn back the clock and keep herself from learning, but it was too late now. The dirtiest secret of this perpetual cycle was her burden to bear.

At some point, she was going to have to use it. She knew that. For now, she didn’t dare. She simply stared at this last memento, thinking back to who it belonged to– another young girl who wanted to do right by the world. Someone who took it too far, and let the weight of the world way too heavily on their shoulders till they finally cracked under the pressure.

“Shiny,” she absentmindedly thought to herself, peering blankly at the shiny outer shell of that pitch-black seed.

Shiny enough to see herself in its dark, glassy reflection.


	2. Origin

5 YEARS EARLIER

_What makes a storm scary?_

Sara felt sick– like there were rocks in her stomach, as her father’s boat rocked shakily back and forth on the raging sea. Both she and her father knew better than to go out on business on a night like this, but their clients had offered them more money than they’d know what to do with just to go out in it.

Why…? Well, they were told not to ask. It was more convenient not to ask. They just wanted to go out into the middle of the ocean for an hour or two.

Just an hour, or two, they said.

But when the sirens and lights approached in the distance, they wanted to go out further. For just a little longer, for more money. Even _more _money. Sara protested, but the family business was sinking and she had no real right to complain the more the digits of what was being offered went up.

She had been offered one wish by some mythical looking pest before– she could’ve simply gotten the money that way, but it seemed like a greedy waste of a wish to ask for money in exchange for… whatever it was they wanted in return.

Now, here, she wished she had taken that offer.

“Dad, I really think we should find somewhere to dock. The thunder is following the lightning too close at this point, the storm’s only going to get worse fr–”

“Shut up, you bitch!” one of the “clients” barked, abruptly cutting her off. “You’re already this far deep, just chill out another fucking hour!”

Sara’s father glared at him, earning an apologetic look from the second client sitting beside him. The man cleared his throat, speaking far more politely than the one next to him. “He’s very worked up, and rude, but I have to politely second my friend’s statement. Just another hour, and we’ll be out of your hands, and you’ll be much, much richer.”

Sara looked from them to her father, shaking her head. “We don’t have another hour in this weather. This isn’t some huge ship, it’s just a little boat meant for fishing. I don’t know exactly what you’re up to, and I don’t want to know at this point, but you’re taking a bigger risk being out here than simply letting us dock somewhere discreet.”

“JUST SHUT–” the ruder one started, but immediately cut off and startled by a lightning strike a bit too close for comfort out in the ocean.

The silver-haired girl blinked a few times and pointed outwards toward the strikes and flashes, emphasizing her point. “This is exactly what I’m talking about! We’re in a little boat, with metal sticking out of it, in the middle of nowhere– the sea’s getting choppier and choppier, and pretty soon, we’re going to capsize. This as much your safety as it is ours, and you need to recognize this!”

She turned to her father, staring at him pleadingly. “Come on, this isn’t worth it. Dad, let’s go home. Please.”

He nodded, giving her a sympathetic look back. “Yeah, you’re right, Sara… sorry guys, we’re going to have to turn back. I can’t risk going out further in this thing anyway, it isn’t meant for super deep ocean water in the first place. I’ll drop you off against the closest coastline, how about–”

He was interrupted by the sound of a gun being cocked while he turned towards the wheel, freezing in place.

The “polite” one calmly held a beretta pointed in his direction, shaking his head. “I hate to do this, but you’re hardly leaving us a choice in this matter. Take the boat out farther, Mr. Reighs.”

“You aren’t listening to either of us. This boat doesn’t stand any chance i–”

A shot fired off into the air as the man instead pointed the gun at Sara. “We heard both of you. I’m telling you that you’re going to take us out further, or we’ll dump the two of you out and take ourselves further.”

Both Sara and her father stared at them in shock, then at each other.

He gave her a forlorn look, then turned back around to start taking the boat out further.

* * *

* * *

_Is it the flooding rains? The destructive lightning? Or the cacophony that follows them both, pounding so hard you can’t feel your heart-beat?_

Sara screamed as the boat rocked violently back and forth, not even her years of being on the boat steeling her for this. It flung her against one of the steel rails, hitting her in the stomach and ejecting the air from her lungs. She sputtered and wheezed, bracing herself against it as tightly as she could just to prevent herself from toppling over. The overwhelming smell of the salty sea filled her nostrils as she inhaled to get her breath back, turning herself around just enough to watch the rest of the boat.

The two that had gotten them into this mess in the first place tumbled around helplessly, each effort to get up foiled by slipping on the seawater coating the ship. The beretta slipped out of the calm one’s grip, bouncing around the deck uselessly. Sara dropped to the ground and grabbed for it, only to be met by the thuggish client kicking at her hand as hard as he could manage from his prone position. She let out a cry of pain, her hand reeling back from the blow; the ship tilted harshly to the left again, causing her to slide up against the railing while laying down, earning another crushing blow– to her ribs this time. Sara wheezed, realizing that something had just broken inside of her.

Nonetheless, she struggled to her feet, knees wobbling from the effort, and clutching her chest. The thuggish one managed to finally right himself using the railing, glaring at her as the beretta uselessly tumbled into the ocean.

“You should’ve just fucking listened!” she screamed over the howling wind. “If anyone of us dies, it’s on you!”

“Oh, can it, bitch, you could’ve just said no and walked away from the money!” he shouted back.

“The deal way a mile or two, not driving straight out into the goddamned ocean you idiot!”

Her father looked back, desperately wanting to come out to help her, but knowing that the second he stopped fighting the waves with his steering the whole thing would capsize. He was relegated to steering the best he could, desperately trying to turn to escape the storm.

“Shut up, just fucking shut up!” the thug screamed, rushing at her the second the boat stilled, striking her across the face with his fist. She winced and tilted her head to accommodate the blow, dangerously leaning back against the railing to give herself enough room to throw a heavy upwards swing back at him from her position. It collided with his chin, knocking him a solid foot back from his body automatically recoiling from the blow.

“I’m on this boat for a reason, you son of a bitch…” she murmured, wiping the blood leaking from the corner of her lip with the back of her hand. Sara tore off the outer jacket that was just soggy and weighing her down at this point, exposing her muscular build and thick arms in the thin tank-top she was wearing underneath. “Don’t think you can’t get away with this shit just because I’m a girl.”

He laughed mockingly at her, spitting out blood as he righted himself with the railing opposite her. “Yeah, you’re some girl. More man than a girl, though!”

“Certainly more man than you,” she growled, adopting a boxing stance as he lunged at her again. This time she weaved to the side, letting the punch uselessly whiff past her shoulder– and using the momentum from her own body’s motion to rotate her torso up, carrying her fist along with it– directly into this abdomen with a crushing amount of force. He wheezed outward, the breath catching in his throat. She didn’t waste a moment to toy with him, letting out an intimidating howl, shoving him back with her arm just enough to allow the full weight of her arms to crash into the sides of his face as she unleashed hook after hook into the sides of his face, letting the momentum of each one carry her into the next.

Her blows only stopped when she felt his accomplice reach for her leg, pushing the thuggish one down now that he was barely conscious, and stomping at the hand reaching for her.

He yanked his hand back quickly, retreating on his hands and knees to the cabin with her father. He lept up to his feet in the safe confines of the mostly dry room, pulling out a second, smaller gun from his boot and pointing it at Sara’s father.

“Okay, okay, now let’s just all be calm and civil,” he said, a smug grin creeping onto his face. “No need to escalate this any more than it has–”

Abruptly, lightning struck right next to the boat. Shaking everything around them, and absolutely deafening.

Just as abrupt and deafening as the gunshot fired off directly through her father’s heart.

She stood in shock as he collapsed, lifeless before he even touched the ground.

The man who shot him looked panicked as if he didn’t mean to– whether he did or not, at this point, was entirely irrelevant.

Sara let out a piercing scream, her vision turning completely red with rage. She ran towards the cabin, earning a gunshot through the shoulder as she tried to make her way in there. As if she were possessed, she continued forward, use of one of her arms be damned. The second shot he fired missed, the third hitting her in the thigh far too late. Sara had already rushed into him, her usable arm swinging at him wildly. Her fist rapidly jabbed into his face, the repeated, bloodthirsty blows dispatching him quickly as the gun fell from his hands.

Out of the picture for now.

She looked to her father’s body, dropping to her knees as the pain caught up to her brain. She winced and sobbed, the sound of the rain completely drowning her out. Without anyone steering the boat, however, it started to tilt and shake far more violently.

A voice in the back of her head screamed for her to get up. She knew she had to because if she didn’t now, there was no way she was going to make it out of this alive. She knew this, even if it meant pulling herself away from her father’s body with barely even a second to grieve.

Sara tried to stand, but the wound in her thigh was far too painful. The best she could do was lift herself enough on one leg to reach the wheel, and use her only functional arm to try to work against the storm.

Even with all the strength, she had left, every ounce of power she tried to work through her body, it still wasn’t enough.

Then, Kyubey appeared in front of the wheel, having picked the most opportune moment. “Hello, Sara. Seems you’re in trouble.”

“Now’s not the time, you _rat!” _she shouted, straining to hold on to the wheel as the boat continued to violently rock to and fro against the increasingly powerful waves.

“I feel now’s the best time. It appears you’re about to die.”

She didn’t even bother giving that statement a response, besides a low growl of pain.

“You can make any wish you want with me– you could easily get away from all of this. You just need to say the word.” Kyubey continued, staring unblinkingly at her.

“Fine, you god-damn pest…” she weakly groaned, light-headed as more and more blood left her body. She lifted herself up as much as she could manage, staring right back at it.

“Let me control this storm, and tame this sea! I’ll make your damned contract!” she shouted, feeling something intangible leave her body the moment the words left her lips.

“As you wish, Sara.”

Lightning began to violently assault the sea around them, crashing down against the water every other second. She cried out and covered her ears, falling to the ground with nothing to support her.

She could hear the man next to her she had thought to have knocked unconscious being violently awoken by the cacophony, but there was nothing she could do. It was like every bit of will had been sapped from her body, and she couldn’t understand why.

“You… crazy, bitch…” he groaned, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He picked up his gun, sneering at her down the sights.

Suddenly, a stray bolt crashed through the cabin and struck Sara directly in the back, forcing a scream of pain out of her. The man dropped the gun again to cover his ears, completely shell-shocked from the deafening noise and heat from the proximity to it.

Despite every nerve in her body screaming at her, a billion volts of electricity cascading in her body, she felt the will to move surging back into her body alongside it. Whatever pain she felt before was completely wiped away in place of this new searing hell.

Nonetheless, she started to rise to her feet. Her skin crackled with arcing bolts of electricity, her eyes aglow with a chaotically flickering white light. Those same eyes turned to the man beside her, filled with a sorrowful rage.

“What the hell– what the hell are you?!” he screamed at her, scrambling to grab his gun again. A stray bolt from her body struck his hand, making him yank in back to his body in startled pain.

She moved toward him with purpose, grabbing onto his head and lifting him off his feet with a newfound strength.

“**Carry that question with you to hell.**” she said, her voice coming out as a distorted roar. Tears streamed down her face as another bolt of lightning cracked into her back, circuiting through her body directly into his.

There was a short scream, but that amount of electricity almost immediately fried the man’s nervous system and stopped his heart. She continued to hold his lifeless, twitching body in her hand– she derived no pleasure from it but felt no remorse in return. She walked out of the cabin with him in her hand, tossing him like a doll into the open sea.

His friend was rising to his feet, looking on in horror.

She turned her head to him, her expression devoid of any discernible emotion as the pouring rain masked her tears. Even without her saying a word, the thug started to back up, every thought in his mind consumed by the overwhelming to get away– but there was nowhere left to go. Not out here, in the middle of the sea.

“S-Sto– this isn’t–” he stammered, desperately searching for any words that wouldn’t lead to his death.

“**You made this grave for yourself. It’s time for you to lie in it.” **Sara stated, her voice overpowering the storm itself.

A surge of seawater rose from behind her, soaring above her and crashing like a truck into his body. The sound of broken bones and a frightened scream was muffled by the water, as the uncaring, unfeeling sea swallowed him whole.

Sara stood there, silent. The sea began to calm, the storm bending to her will.

What she felt she had to do was done. In a matter of minutes, vengeance was hers. She thought it might make her feel better, but there was still a hole in her heart that their deaths didn’t fill.

She walked into the cabin, staring at her father’s lifeless body. The girl got on her knees, lifting him enough to hold him close to her. There was hardly any warmth left now.

“I’m sorry, dad….” she muttered quietly. “If you’re still watching me from somewhere… tell mom that I’ll be alright. I promise I’ll look after myself, so…” Sara continued, clutching his body tighter. “… you guys don’t need to worry about me anymore.”

* * *

* * *

Sara stood at the grave of her mother, now side by side to a grave made in rocks and flowers. They didn’t have the money for a big funeral or even enough for a coffin and headstone. Any money the two criminals promised them either never existed or had been lost in the struggle.

Even if they did, there was no way to police would’ve believed her if she told them what happened. Her father’s death had to be a secret now. An unmarked grave next to her mother’s was the best she could do for him.

It hurt, but it’s what she needed to do if she wanted to keep moving.

Kyubey had informed her of her new duties while she was digging the grave late last night. It was clear that this would be the thing to occupy most of her time.

She sold the family house to a group of yakuza since legally putting it for sale was out of the question without her father around. It was enough money to get a decent apartment for a long while, but not much else. Having money for food and a place to stay was all she needed. School was out of the question at this point.

“You know, I’ve never seen such powerful magic manifest itself in an untransformed state before. Not many girls simply wish for power… the effects are certainly impressive.” Kyubey stated, sitting atop the grave of Sara’s mother, tail idly flicking around.

She manifested her spear, stopping it just an inch from skewering the creature whole. “If you expect me to humor your banter, do it off her grave, you shitheel.”

Kyubey stared at her unblinking, simply hopping off the headstone to appeal to her. Not that it mattered what she thought of them, but she would certainly be interesting to watch; they didn’t want to lose that opportunity.

“So, where to next?” Kyubey asked.

“Guess I have to find myself a witch now. What else do I have to do, anymore, anyway?” she said, a grim smile on her face.

She left the grave behind, hands in her pockets and eyes to the sidewalk.

Wherever was next… she’d have to find out all on her own.


	3. Building Pressure

PRESENT DAY

OCTOBER

“It’s mine, I found it!”

“Sure, you found it, but I’m the one who actually killed the thing!”

“I don’t care, it’s finders-keepers! I found it! Me!”

“How does that matter if you didn’t do any of the work?!”

Two magi were arguing with each other as the labyrinth faded around them, poised as if they were both ready to continue fighting; but with each other instead. A short girl with white hair, the one claiming finders-keepers, and a much taller black-haired girl, claiming to have killed it. The grief seed of the defeated Witch sat idly between them, neither of the two girls wanting to give up their defensive stance to snatch it.

“You…!” the white hair girl cried, raising her dagger to attack–

-only to have a blinding flash of a light flare between them– the massive, silver-haired lightning bearer showing up between them in the same instant.

“Girls,” Sara said firmly, arcs of electricity still crackling off of her body from her arrival. “Why are we getting ready to fight? It seems that the witch is gone now, so…”

The woman slowly kneeled down and picked up the grief seed between her fingers, paying no mind to the two of them. The two girls were far too busy stammering after collapsing to the ground in shock.

“I… you’re…–” the black-haired girl mumbled, clearly in a mixture of awe and bone-chilling fear at seeing Sara in the flesh.

Sara side-eyed her, but returned her gaze to the grief seed in her fingers, openly scanning over its design to try to gather any information she could about it. Something these two wouldn’t understand, but important to her.

“Now, you don’t seem recognizable… what were you doing in a city like this…?” she whispered to herself, ignoring the two of them for a moment.

“N-Now, listen, I found the labyrinth and the Witch first, so–” the white-haired girl began, only to be interrupted by the thunderous sound of Sara slamming the hilt of her spear into the ground.

“I don’t care who did what. Your Soul Gems. Show them to me.” Sara commanded, her attention finally returning to girls near her.

“W…What? Our gems? Why would we–” the black-haired girl began, shutting herself up when she saw the way Sara’s eyes were flickering. Hesitantly, the two of them transformed out of their magi forms, manifesting their soul gems and holding them out in front of her.

“Idiots…” Sara sighed, pulling the two girls closer by their arms so they could get a better look at each other's Soul Gems. The shorter girl’s was dim and cloudy, while the taller one was still shining brightly.

“Oh…” the black-haired girl murmured, her gaze lowering to the ground.

Sara took a deep breath, composing herself in the silence. “Now you get it,” she said quietly, shaking her head. “She was in no shape to fight the witch, let alone you, at full-power.”

“… I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

Sara walked to the taller girl, gripping her other hand and setting the grief seed in it. “Now, you know you could easily take her on if you wanted to. So, in all regards the grief seed is yours. What are you going to do with it?” she asked, her sharp eyes giving her a gaze that could cut through steel.

The black-haired girl looked it over for a moment, before slowly walking over to the white-haired one and tapping the grief seed against her cloudy Soul Gem. “Sorry, I didn’t know you needed it so bad…” she murmured towards the girl herself this time, letting the darkness in the shorter girl’s Soul Gem slowly fade away into the Grief Seed.

“It’s okay, I probably should’ve said so… thank you for using it on me.”

“My name’s Hayami,” the black-haired girl said, “… would you maybe want to go to the arcade? They have some good food there, and I feel like I should apologize for getting so worked up…”

“Miyo. I’d be happy to, Hayami.” the white-haired girl said, a genuine smile on her face.

Hayami smiled back, before blinking and starting to turn around. “Oh, if you want I’d be more than happy to treat you, too, Miss… Reighs…?”

Sara had already left, nowhere to be found.

* * *

The woman sat on the very edge of an office building rooftop, squinting as she idly watched the setting sun. Her thoughts mulled over the implications on the design of the grief seed she saw. Nothing that seemed too familiar… usually, it happened to pull some inspiration from the designs on the Magi’s Soul Gem. There was nothing she recognized, though. Probably some poor girl who wandered here from another town, and didn’t get help when she really needed it.

Something I might’ve been able to do something about if I were more vigilant, Sara thought to herself.

Kyubey wandered up to Sara along the edge, sitting away from her at an appropriate distance. They had learned from experience that the “appropriate” distance was just out of the range of Sara’s spear.

Sara could spot him out of her peripheral vision, visibly becoming tenser from their presence.

“The hell do you want, Incubator?” she growled, keeping her gaze outward toward the orange skyline.

“You did good work keeping those girls from killing each other,” Kyubey replied, “It would have been a shame to see one of them die from a territorial skirmish.”

“Yeah, it would be. Though we have conflicting reasons for saying that.” Sara said.

“What makes you say that?” Kyubey asked, tilting its head to an unnatural degree in some facsimile of confusion.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Sara said through gritted teeth, “It doesn’t matter to you whether they’re okay or not. You wouldn’t have cared whatsoever if that girl had Witched out; it only matters to you that she didn’t die prematurely and break your precious cycle.”

“Well said,” the Incubator said, nodding. “Though, I do feel you hold some unneeded resentment for it. I have told you before, this for the good of the entire universe, you know. You may suffer for it, but we aren’t forcing you to do this purely out of a desire to help us. You get to make any wish you want, anything, and this is somehow an unfair trade to you?”

“You know it isn’t that simple. You prey on girls who barely even know what they want yet– girls who want something as simple as a cuter nose, or for a boy to like them in school. You don’t go asking adults with a clearer idea of what they want, you just go for emotional, impulsive teens. Or worse, you strike when they’re at their lowest. Just like you did to me.”

“It was because of that wish you’re still alive, Sara. In fact, it seems you’re so strong now, you hardly have to worry about becoming a Witch anymore. We could count the amount of Magi who have survived to the age you have on two of your hands.”

Sara turned to the creature and glared, smashing her fist in the concrete ledge. “This isn’t about my survival, you little shit! You know what this is about! You know exactly who this is about.”

Kyubey stared at her, their tails flicking about. They took a minute to process what she could’ve been talking about, before letting out a little ‘Ah!’ in realization. “The young Magi from a month ago?”

“Young… Magi…” Sara growled, electricity starting to arc up and down her body. “You like to sugarcoat things… don’t you… Incubator?”

The woman’s face twitched, barely able to contain the emotions welling up to a boiling point inside of her.

“I expected it would upset you less than if I referred to her as a Witch.” Kyubey replied.

“You….”

Sara's body exploded with light, donning her outfit in an instant as she extended her arm just enough to lance through Kyubey’s body with her spear. All it took was a quick flick of her rest to sever them in half, leaving a bloodied lump on the floor.

“She was eight. Just eight…”

She darted from the building, choking back screams; desperate to run away from the feeling rising back up in her chest as the wind rushed past her face, scattering her tears.

A new body of Kyubey’s materialized on the rooftop as she left, gobbling up the leftovers of the previous body; then, staring out towards the setting sun, not a speck of empathy floating through their head.


	5. Self-reflection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait-- 8 day long work weeks kicked my ass. Hopefully writing more often soon!

Water cascaded down the muscular lines running down Sara's back, steam from the shower fogging up her entire bathroom. She found comfort in roaring hot showers like this-- though it wasn't as easy to zone out in a Japanese shower as it was in a western one. There was that one thing she missed (out of many) from her family home; the western shower her late mother had built into it because she couldn't _stand _the ones typical to Japan.

Sara, growing up with it, had to agree. A bit biased, but it was hard to avoid getting attached to even the little things like that.

She absentmindedly toyed with the shower nozzle's switch, spraying herself on and off as she stared blankly out at the walls. _There's still not much feeling in the scars, _she thought to herself.

The first lightning strike she received directly upon becoming a Magi never really healed properly. A massive scar in the center of her back splintered outwards into fractal patterns, stopping just at her shoulders and hips. Sara had taken it as a given she'd probably not feel much on them for the rest of her life-- however long that'd be. Still, she couldn't help but yearn for the feeling in her back to return.

Just one more scalding shower to help her forget about the world for a little while would be nice.

* * *

The woman stared at herself in the mirror, sighing quietly. She picked up a brush and begun the slow, tedious process of working through her thick, silver hair. Each tangle and snag was another shot in her head screaming, _chop it off, cut it up._

Maybe it would be far easier to simply cut it short, so short she'd never have to brush it again...

But, her dad loved it this way, so she didn't.

A snag. A quiet curse under her breath.

A snarl. Swearing a bit louder.

A particularly rough tangle-- and she threw her brush across the bathroom, slamming her fist on the counter and shouting.

Lately, she was always boiling over like this. The Incubator certainly didn't help, but neither did watching more and more girls disappear every year... and more Witches turn up at the same rate. Ever since she learned the truth about Witches, she turned away from her past as simply a lone wolf, desperately attempting to be some sort of superhero for all Magi. Someone who could always come save the day, no matter how dire. Someone invincible and commanding, able to steer all the others onto the right path.

For most, she had become that ideal. All, except herself. She knew all too well how many girls she had failed. As long as there were witches around, she knew there was another girl she didn't save. A girl out there that needed help, and she wasn't there for them.

The feeling tore at her heart. None more than the last girl she failed.

She still wasn't ready to think about it for very long, let alone talk about it. Every time that pleading voice sounded out in her head, she'd break down on the spot. The flashbacks had been getting more frequent lately; repressing it wasn't helping... but who does a 'superhero' go to?

Who else knew the truth?

Sara walked to her bed and reached underneath the mattress, retrieving a key. She used it on her bedside cabinet, pulling out one of the drawers. Inside was a collection of neatly organized grief seeds; each one with a name, some used, some not.

One of the first things Kyubey would tell Magi is that after using the grief seeds, to immediately give it to them to "purify" them. It had become clear now that that wasn't quite the truth. It was the final step in the process, absorbing a Magi's grief to convert it into free energy for the Incubators' ultimate goal of fighting entropy.

It was the safer option to simply give them to Kyubey; if a grief seed absorbs too much, it would simply rebirth the witch again. It could definitely be considered foolish to hold onto them like this, especially out of spite.

But, spite wasn't quite all there was to it.

They were the last memento for most of these girls. Sometimes there was a body after their transformation, sometimes there wasn't. To those bodies she found, she made them look more dignified in death before calling the police. To those she knew didn't have anyone waiting for them, she'd bury them herself.

Even if she was surviving on her own, she felt it wrong to take anything from the dead but the seeds they left behind in their wake.

There were many dead left behind her. In her years as a Puella Magi, there had been enough bodies that she'd begun struggling to remember their names. Nonetheless, she still struggled onward, desperately clinging to the hope she'd find some way to break the cycle. It didn't matter if she died in the process, just that the suffering finally ended.

She closed the drawer again, letting out a forlorn sigh.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

Rain cascaded across the city, the sky overcast and pitch-black as the sun once again faded behind the clouds. Sara made her way to the tallest point in the city, a towering office complex topped with a sky-piercing lightning rod as its apex.

She bounded upwards, her legs charged with magic to propel her higher and higher. The woman was a bright teal streak in the darkness, climbing as fast as she could to reach the top.

Towards the roof, she sat herself down on the closest equivalent to a foothold there was, jolts of electricity sparking off of her as she calmed down to survey the landscape.

Thousands of lights lit up the horizon-- all sparkling in whites, yellows, and oranges. Distant neon signs further colored the landscape-- there was hardly a spot in this city that remained dark in the night. She could see the people down below, going about their business, enjoying their off-time. Not a single scrap of knowledge into what kind of life Sara was living-- a life many of the young girls in this city were living.

Her eyes scanned across the area for any signs of trouble-- flashes of magic, transformations in the distance. Anything to help her patrol as opposed to wandering aimlessly along the streets.

Something was bugging her though. The feeling of being watched-- not a feeling she normally got this high up. She brought her gaze up, surveying more around her altitude. Most of the roof-tops were entirely devoid of life-- that was, except for one. She could make out a distant figure, flashing a bright LED on and off in sporadic intervals.

It hit her suddenly, from her years of working on a ship and lessons from her father, that they had a clear pattern to them. Morse code.

She focused her attention fully on the flashing light, trying to decipher it as it repeated over and over.

"You... are.... not... alone...?"

Sara raised an eyebrow, confused at the vague message. Morse generally was used for more simplistic messages to a broad audience that could be picking it up-- not focused at one person.

To deliberately flash the message toward her must mean they _knew _she would be able to read it. _How do they know that _she thought, _and why are they contacting me_?

She stood up, ready to move towards the source when a new message began to flash out of a recognition that Sara had received the previous.

**[- .-. ..- - .... --- ..- - ... --- --- -.]**

**Truth out soon**

**[-.. . .- -.. ... .. ... - . .-. -.. .- -. --. . .-. --- ..- ... -... .-. --- - .... . .-.]**

**Dead sister dangerous brother**

**[--. .-. --- ..- .--. .. -. -- .. - .- -.- .. .... .- .-. .-]**

**Group in Mitakihara**

**[-- . . - .- - ... ..- -. -.. --- .-- -. .. -. - .... .-. . . -.. .- -.-- ...]**

**Meet at sundown in three days**

**[.-.. . - --. --- --- ..-. .--. .- ... -]**

**Let go of past**

**[.--. .-. --- - . -.-. - - .... . ..-. ..- - ..- .-. .]**

**Protect the future**

Sara struggled to piece together the more cryptic parts of the message, making the choice to bolt toward the figure and get clear answers face to face. She dived down from her perch toward the silhouette, at speeds beyond what one should be able to react to-- only to be met with cold, empty air once she reached their position, the figure having vanished into thin air half-way through her dive.

She scrambled for a proper hold on the roof-top now that her trajectory was off, materializing her spear and slamming it into the ground to stop her momentum. The air left her lungs as she crashed into the cement roof, rolling to minimize the damage and colliding with the metal railing on the very edge. It creaked from the impact, but just barely held on enough to keep her from rolling off.

The woman gasped for air, slowly picking herself up from the wet ground.

Eyes scanned the roof for any clues-- anything left behind at all. Nothing stood out. Searching it to death only came out with a few strands of stray black hair, which was of no real help in identifying the figure; especially here in Japan.

The only lead she had now was those cryptic messages-- the only place to find more, the distant town of Mitakihara.

It was a long shot-- but if the truth they spoke of meant the truth about Witches... then this was important. A chance to finally meet people who haven't broken from learning it, too.

Going it alone all this time was hurting her-- she knew this.

Maybe it was time for a change.

"Mitakihara..." she repeated to herself.

Tomorrow morning, she'd set off. First, it was time to rest off another set of new bruises.


End file.
